Thanksgiving Message
Tuesday, January 5, 2010 at 10:11PM 
We have arrived at that time of the year when all across America people will pause to celebrate Thanksgiving. This provides me with the opportunity to reflect on the many, many things within the ministry of God's Economy for which I am grateful. After all, isn't "thanks-giving" exactly that, stopping to offer thanks?
I recently wrote to a new friend of God's Economy, "The most important aspect of doing this work is the understanding that each of us is part of God's Economy. It is not my objective to build a big organization. I want only to be used as a vehicle that inspires others to take their God-given resources (time, talent, and treasures) and use them for the greater good of humanity." God's Economy is an amalgamation of friends from the United States and Africa who want to make the world a better place to live; who want to dispense God's love, mercy, and grace across continents. It is a movement of friends who know that they are blessed with limitless gifts and feel compelled to redistribute the blessings. For this wave of generosity and stewardship, I offer thanks.
Prayer warriors, donors, volunteers, Board members, editors, mentors, family cheer-leaders, friends, you know who you are. Your faithful service to God's Economy has meant that the ministry has been effective in its mission to serve as a conduit through which resources flow from those who have excess to those who have need. Each one of you has forged a trail of God's favor from your heart to Africa. YOU are God's Economy. You live out the principles of "blessed to be a blessing". I never cease to be amazed by your gifts to the people of Africa: your faithful prayers, your finances, and your time in volunteerism. For the groundswell of participants in God's Economy, I give thanks.
In his address to the National Prayer Breakfast in February 2008, Ward Brehm, an unyielding advocate for Africa's poor, said, "I will forever be indebted to Africa for it awakened me when I did not know that I was asleep." One paragraph cannot begin to capture the depth of gratitude that I have for our partners in Africa. Each partnership is founded upon the notion that we are the Body of Christ, and we bear one another's burdens and celebrate one another's joys. The partners in Africa have awakened me (us) and shown how to live out the gospel in all of its fullness: radical worship, radical faith, and radical living in spite of every adverse condition imaginable. The God's Economy friends in the United States have been the recipients of abundant treasures from you. For old partners and new, I give thanks.
God's Economy Investors, take a moment to ponder this. Because of your offerings to the Lord through this ministry the following has occurred: well over a thousand mosquito nets have been distributed to Malawian families and to a rural hospital. A feeding center daily provides a meal and an early childhood education program to over one hundred children. Fresh water wells provide a potable water source in rural villages. Hundreds upon hundreds of blankets are keeping children and adults warm on chilly African winter nights. Home based care workers now use bicycles as their primary means of transportation on their patient visits. Micro-development groups are launched and functional. Community gardens feed families nutritional vegetables. Roofing is now installed on an orphan's day center providing shelter and protection for the children during the Malawian heat and rain. Modern hospital equipment is in daily use making the hospital's health care delivery more efficient and modernized. Bibles, written and audio, are in the hands of rural pastors and youth vulnerable to HIV. Our partners are receiving finances to assist in staff salaries so that the workers in the field can carry on their meaningful work...This is only a portion of what God has enabled us to do in 2009.
Can you imagine that God loves us so much that He would give each of us the opportunity to co-labor in this work? For all of this and so much more, I give thanks.
Happy Thanksgiving from God's Economy,
Cricket
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Give thanks with a grateful heart
Give thanks to the Holy One
Give thanks for He has given Jesus Christ His son. (repeat)
And now let the weak say, "I am strong"
Let the poor say, "I am rich"
Because of what the Lord has done for us
Give thanks.
Give Thanks lyrics © Integrity's Hosanna Music
Reader Comments (1)
This is a good article,thank you for your share,I like it very much.Our products are superior in quality and moderate in price and are sure to be saleable in your market guess belt